


To Be Alone

by eliza_plante



Category: Twilight (Movies), Twilight Series - All Media Types, Twilight Series - Stephenie Meyer
Genre: F/F, Imprinting (Twilight), LGBTQ Female Character, Lesbian Character
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-31
Updated: 2021-01-17
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:49:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,013
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28444953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eliza_plante/pseuds/eliza_plante
Summary: After a tragedy, Eliana Lahote travels back to La Push after 14 years away to move back in with her dad. While dealing with the loss of her mother, she adjusts to life surrounded by trees instead of concrete. What she didn't expect was to be introduced to a world she didn't think existed.
Relationships: Leah Clearwater & Original Female Character(s)
Kudos: 17





	1. Burgers, Fries, and a Milkshake

“I never thought I would be here, not with them, not with her. But now I’m glad I did. She’s all that matters.”

  
  
  


Eliana Lahote sat in a train car going from one end of the country to the other, admiring the view that she would continue to recognize as  _ trees;  _ something she wasn’t used to in the big city, especially not in the Bronx. Staring blankly out to the masses of green that graced the surroundings of the railroad track, she was still in denial about her mother’s recent passing, she got chills occasionally when she thought about it, but not from watching her die, she surely would repress that. The real chills came from going to La Push for the first time since she was six. She talked to her dad on the phone and got a card from him for her birthday and Christmas, coming here was like living in the past. 

After arriving in Seattle, her father, John, was there waiting for her. Older than Eliana remembers, more wrinkles and some grey coming in on his black hair. “Hey kiddo, it’s been a while.” 

Eliana nodded, looked him up and down and hugged him tightly. “You could say that, yeah.” Pulling away she stood there with him. “Is it too much to get something to eat? It was a long train ride.”

“Sure thing! Let’s go…” He said as he helped her with her bags and directed her towards his truck. “Pizza or burgers? I know you probably want something fast and fatty.” Both chuckling, she nodded. 

“A cheeseburger combo with fries and a milkshake sound amazing right now.” Anything to repress her sadness of her mom dying. “Could I also sleep a little bit when we get to your place? I barely slept on the ride here.” John nodded and opened the passenger door for her. Piling all of the bags in the back seat, he went straight towards La Push. It’s a long drive so they had to stop on the way back. 

Placing their orders, she took a piece of her long, dark brown hair and twirled it around her finger. John looked at her, wondering what must be going through her head right now. Having to go through all of that, then packing up and moving to the other side of the country? It must all be so strange for her. “So...uh-” It was all very awkward. “Did..did you have a job before moving out here?”

“Yeah...it’s kind of hard not to, the city’s really expensive.” Eliana said, staring off into space, but shook herself out, realizing that he was only trying to make conversation with her, it has been a while, after all. “I was a barista and a server, I worked a couple of jobs.” 

John nodded as he looked around the diner for the server, to see if the food was started on yet. “We do have some restaurants and coffee shops in the area, not that you have to get a job immediately, but they’re there if you want to, you know, apply.” She nodded in agreement. It was a little bit before the food got to their table, they engaged in more silence while they ate. After paying the bill and leaving, they were on the road again. “It’s a long drive, so you can lean the seat back a bit and sleep, if you need to.” Eliana nodded and did just that. 

Her mind was not her friend right now. All she could see was her mom laying on the floor in the bathroom after coming home from a night out with her friends. It was three in the morning, who knew how long she’d been there for? If she had come home a little earlier…HONK!

Shot awake by an eighteen-wheeler laying on the horn, she wiped her eyes. “How..how far have we driven?”

“Two hours, a little more than half-way there.” John sighed as he pulled out a book of crossword puzzles. “I figured this would help pass the time until we get there.” Eliana took the book and nodded.

“Thanks, this will definitely help.” Crossword puzzles. Such a simple thing that could occupy your time. She nodded her head.  _ He’s trying.  _ That’s what she thought. It’s true, he was. John was doing his best in a difficult situation, he wanted to see Eliana, but not in this way. They could get to know each other more, but he knows she’s going to have a difficult time getting over the trauma she had to go through as well as getting used to life here. 

Two more hours later, they arrived in La Push and pulled into his dirt driveway. Eliana got out and looked at the house. It wasn’t much, but it was a home, surrounded by trees. What seemed like a split-level red house. “I know it ain’t much, but it’s stable, warm, and ours. Built it myself.” He said, walking up to the house, Eliana following not far behind him. He showed her to her room and placed her bags down. “Feel free to make yourself at home, sleep some more if you need to. I’ll be whipping up some barbeque, I have some frozen dinners if that’s not your style.”

Eliana nodded and looked around, giving him a light smile. “Thank you...dad.” He walked out and closed the door behind him, giving her a smile back. She looked around, his house was very... _ woodsy.  _ It was silly, but it was like a pine scented candle, but she realized it was most likely  _ actual  _ pines. Setting her bag down on the floor, she plopped on the full-sized bed and sighed. She changed out of her jeans and sweater into sweatpants and an oversized shirt before tucking herself into her bed for a more comfortable nap. It was just blank this time, black, nothing. No dream, no mother on the floor, nothing. Which was a nice break from what she had been experiencing, maybe she needed this after all. She was woken up by a knock on her door three hours later. It was her dad again.

“So some of my buddies came over for the barbeque, they brought some of their kids. You can come out if you like, socialize with them if you want. There’s plenty of food to go around.” John said as he closed the door a bit behind him. 

Eliana nodded at what he said. “Ok, sure. I-It’s always good to meet new people.” 

John nodded in slight excitement,  _ this was good _ , he thought. “See you out there when you’re ready.” 

She nodded and waited until he left the room to pick out an outfit to wear, not really keen on meeting his friends in sweatpants and an oversized t-shirt. Eliana slipped on a different pair of black jeans, a red flannel and a bomber jacket. She knew they were going to be outside, so she put on a beanie as well. Walking out through the kitchen and to the back porch where she heard people talking and laughing. 

“Hey!” John said, excited that she’d come out. “It may have been a few years since you’ve seen her last but this is Eliana, ripe age of twenty.” The other adult men chuckled at how big she’s gotten. 

She heard soft footsteps getting closer to them. “Ah, the kids!” Among them was about three boys and one girl. “This is Quil, Embry, Seth, and Leah.” 

Eliana looked at every one of them and said hi. When she laid eyes on Leah, however, she saw her beauty, was she gay? She didn’t think so. It would be a really bad time to question her sexuality right now. “Hi.” She said with a wave. A couple of seconds after she broke eye contact with her, Leah stepped back a few feet. The boys looked at her in concern, back at Eliana, then back at Leah. Eyebrows were raised, and Leah ran off. “Wait!” Eliana said, looking off to where she ran. “Did...did I do something wrong? Am I dressed weird?”

“No, you’re fine.” Seth reassured her. “She just...is going through something right now.”

“Oh. Well tell her I’m sorry if I upset her in any way.” 

Seth nodded. With the smell of the barbeque filling the air, she looked down.  _ Did she feel what I felt? Am I gay? Did I upset her? Is she okay?  _ She couldn’t help but wonder why Leah left so suddenly, she felt like she had to make it up to her somehow. But why?


	2. Bathroom Tiles

After a night of awkward conversation, head nods, and barbeque, she slept in her new room. Constantly waking up and falling back asleep, a mixture of her mom laying on the bathroom floor and Leah, she couldn’t get her out of her head. When she got out of bed in the morning, her dad was in the kitchen at a round wooden table with a handmade table runner, drinking coffee and having some toast. She walked up to the coffee maker and poured herself some with some sugar and a bit of cream. 

“Good morning. How much did you sleep?”

“Not much.” Eliana didn’t care about lying at the moment, she got the feeling that he relatively knows what she’s going through, if not being empathetic to what she saw. “Hey, so that girl last night, Leah. Is she okay? I keep thinking that I did something to upset her or something.”

“Oh, that? She’s had some trouble recently. Her dad had a heart attack not that long ago. Good man, really upset the family.”

“Oh shit, okay.” Still didn’t make sense, why did she  _ leave _ ? She barely got a word in before the girl darted off in what seemed like running from her life. 

“Hey kiddo, got a surprise for you.” 

El looked confused. “A surprise? What is it?”

“Come outside and I’ll show you.” They both stood up, the floors creaked a bit and John led the way out to the front of the house where there were  _ two  _ cars instead of just his truck. The other one was an older truck, about 10 years old, Red Toyota Rav4. “It’s yours, you’re gonna need it to get around here.” 

“Oh my god!” Eliana said as she excitedly walked up to it and touched it, but stopped, and looked back at him. “I don’t know how to drive. Didn’t have to drive anywhere in the city, ya know.”

“Right, forgot about that part. Well, I’ll teach ya. It’ll be fun, it’s an automatic, easy enough.” John said before looking at his watch. “I gotta go to work, but I’ll see you later, kid.” He said as he walked up to her, lightly grabbed her shoulder before going to his truck, getting in it and started to back up. Eliana waved at him, he waved back and he drove off onto the main road. 

She went back inside and made some scrambled eggs and toast, not much was in the fridge. Sipping her coffee, she heard the silence, it was deafening. Eliana grew up falling asleep to sirens, cars honking, the sound of puddles of water being driven on after it rains on the pavement. But this, this... _ silence _ , it was strange. Felt like she was going to get murdered by a crazy man in the woods or something. 

After finishing off her food, she cleaned the dishes and went to her room, starting to unpack everything and placing them in the old wooden dresser and in the closet. It was everything she owned, including an old laptop, she placed that on the dresser too. Looking around the room, walls painted a cream-white color. Posters of La Push and Seattle were there, along with a 1979 poster of some university in Washington. Her dad was probably either a fan or went there. After a couple of minutes of unpacking, she plopped onto her bed, laying down so that her legs were hanging off the side of the bed, her arms spread out to the side. Closing her eyes, she saw her mom again.  _ Will it ever turn off?  _ She thought to herself. 

There were moments of beautiful darkness, but most of it for the past 2 weeks has been her mom, she suspected it would happen at some point, but not now. In addition to the possibility of seeing her mom, she has that  _ Leah  _ girl pop into mind now. Why was she so important? She’s beautiful, she can’t deny that. Absolutely breathtaking.  _ Ah shit, I’m gay, aren’t I?  _ Eliana always thought that her not having a boyfriend always meant that the good guys were in Manhattan, or Brooklyn. But did she even really think any of ‘em were cute?  _ Genuinely?  _ Maybe not. “Fuck, now I gotta deal with this shit, now?” The raven-haired girl said, her question echoing through the empty house. Sighing, she sat up to retrieve her iPod from her bag that she had with her on the train, put on classical music, and attempted to sleep some more. 

  
  


_ Running.  _ Eliana ran as far as she could through the woods. Fog filled the air beside her, she looked back, scared for her life. Feeling something come after her, she let her legs take her faster and faster, sticks and pine needles crushing underneath her the soles of her shoes. She looked back for a little too long, tripping over a large tree root, her body fell. But instead of stopping on the forest floor, it fell into her apartment in the Bronx. Musty and smoke-filled air rested in between the walls of the ill-designed living room. Looking around, her hazel eyes rested on the bathroom door frame. Walking closer, she peered into it to see her mom’s body in her pajamas, laying on the blue and white bathroom tile. Eliana ran in to help her mom up. “Mom! Get up!” Kneeling on the cold floor, she pressed her ear up against her chest, she heard no heartbeat, the skin was cold. “Mom please! Don’t die, not now!” Still, her body remained limp. Suddenly, she felt a hand wrap around her bicep, pull her off the floor, and drag her into the hall.  _ It was Leah. _

“She’s gone, you can’t help her now. Come with me.”

“B-But I-”

“Now.” Eliana didn’t have time to think about it, she was being dragged by Leah through the front door and out of that apartment, onto the La Push First Beach. Leah turned around and hugged her tight. Being held by her was like having the sun gently grace your skin, that warmness felt incomparable. El melted into her, her arms hugging her tighter. Leah’s hand reached up to lightly stroke the back of her head. Leah pulled away to bring her face to Eliana’s, she got close, her nose touching the other’s. 

“You’re not there anymore. You’re here, in La Push. With me. You don’t have to worry about anything else.” Leah rested her head against Eliana’s and tucked a piece of hair behind her ear, which led her to hold her face. Lightly brushing her thumb on her cheek. “Never again.”

BAM!

El was abruptly woken up by thunder from a rainstorm that was happening outside. Rubbing her eyes, she looked at the time on her iPod: 11:30. “It’s almost  _ noon? _ ” She said in absolute surprise, last time she checked, it was 7:45.  _ Damn. What a dream.  _ She wished she could go back to it. It was the best she’d felt in 2 weeks. If she was being honest with herself, it’s the best she’d felt in her entire life. A calmness was washed over her mind, of relief. El could care less about whether or not she’s gay right now, that dream  _ definitely  _ proved that. She wasn’t even too worried about if Leah felt that way for her or not. For the first time in 2 weeks, she  _ slept _ . And it was peaceful, it was for more than 5 minutes. She rested her head down on her pillow again, took the spare pillow, held it in her arms, and dozed back to sleep. 


	3. Eliana

Leah ran as fast as she could to the tree line, desperate to get past it enough to phase. Running farther and farther, for so long it had been about ten minutes before she realized she was running. She ended up at the Whytecliff jumping landing. Phasing back to her human form, she took deep breaths. Laying on the ground, she closed her eyes.  _ I imprinted. On a woman.  _ She didn’t ever think about that, that it could be a woman for her.  _ I guess it’s more like a soul than a gender.  _ It was just always the norm that it was a male pack member with a female imprintee, because, well...it has always been men who shifted. Now the whole pack knew, even the ones who stayed for the barbeque. They get to talk to her, spend time with her.  _ What’s she like?  _ Leah hadn’t ever seen her before, didn’t even know that John had a kid, is she new? 

“Shit.” Leah muttered, she had no idea that this would happen to her, especially like that, out of nowhere. Why did she have to run? Did she even get her name? Was it something like Elle? Elaine? Closing her eyes, she tried to remember what she heard before they got to the rest of the people.  _ Eliana.  _ What a beautiful name. Leah punched the ground out of frustration. “Why’d I have to run like that? I probably scared her, she was just trying to say hi. Fuck!” She got up and started walking, grabbing a spare sweater and pants that she kept there in case anyone needed it. Making her way down to the beach, she started walking back to her home. She knew it would be a long way but she was fine with it. It gave her time to think.

Eventually making her way back home, Seth came up to her, excitedly. “Hey! Why’d you leave?” 

“You know why.” Leah said, in an almost defeated tone.

“This is huge! You finally imprinted! You’ve done more than I have.”

“You’ll find someone, don’t worry.” Leah said, plopping onto the couch, leaning her head back. “I imprinted on a woman...I always thought…” 

“Well, life works in mysterious ways. Lucky for you, I stayed to talk to her. She’s cool!”

Leah looked up to Seth. “Really?”

“Yeah! She’s new here...well she’s originally from her but lived in New York City for like 15 years. But she’s back to stay now!” 

Leah nodded and sighed. “Of course she’s new, and cool, and no one knows anything about her.”

“All the more reason to get to know her, spend some quality time with her! I’m sure she’d love to spend some time with somebody other than her dad, you know?”

“Yeah.”

She got up and went to her room, laid on her bed and fell asleep, who knew that imprinting on someone would be this exhausting?

* * *

An old door appeared in front of Leah, she opened it. What was on the other side was an apartment, filled with standing smoke, slumped couches and wallpaper that started to peel. Her gaze was broken when she heard screaming coming from one of the rooms. “Mom, Please!” Walking over to the source, there was a body of a woman laying there and a girl with long, raven hair pleading for her mother.  _ It was Eliana.  _ Leah grabbed her arm to take her away from the sadness that was happening before her. Running out the door, they landed on First Beach. Eliana wrapped her arms around her, like the sun's rays were wrapping her in amazing warmth. 

Eyes opening, she blinked, rubbed her eyes and looked at the clock in her room. 7am.  _ Damn. I fell asleep.  _ Leah slowly got up before walking to the shower, grabbing a towel before she made it there. Seth walked out not too long before with a towel wrapped around his waist. “Mornin’, sleeping beauty.”

“Shut it.” Lightly shoving him, she closed the bathroom door behind her and started the shower, waiting for it to get warmer. After pulling her shirt over her head, she sat on the edge of the toilet, thinking. She was still processing this, it was a lot to take in.  _ Am I gay? Is that why I imprinted on her?  _ She shook her head as she finished undressing and slipped in the shower.  _ I barely even got a look at her.  _ Resting her head against the cold tile while the water hit her collarbone, she closed her eyes. Leah was trying to remember. Dark hair, almost black. Her eyes were...green? Hazel? Closing her eyes, that’s all she saw. The vision from when she imprinted played over and over again as she continued the shower. 

Hopping out, she dried off and wrapped the towel around her, walking back to her room. Getting dressed and ready for the rest of the day, she walked out to see almost the whole pack waiting for her.

“Well it’s about time!” Quil cheered as they all clapped for her. 

“God why’d you guys have to have a party about it?”

“It’s a big deal! You found your person!” Embry said with Jacob walking ahead of him toward her. 

“It is a big deal, I’m glad you found her.” He put a hand on her shoulder. “It looks like she’s a pretty cool chick, that’s what Embry said, anyway.”

“She is! A little shy, but she’ll loosen up.”

With all their excitement, it made Leah feel better about her imprintee being a girl instead of a guy, she was just so shocked that she actually imprinted on someone. “Thanks, I’ll have to try to get to know her.”

“No time like the present sis!” Sam said excitedly.

“Sam!” 

“There’s no need to rush her, if she wants to get to know her today, then she will. Just let me know and I’ll give you a ride. Can’t exactly phase to her house, you know.” Jacob looked at her for her approval.

Leah nodded. “I mean, why not? She’s probably at home, right? It would give me good enough reason to apologize.”

“That’s the spirit! Come on! Let’s go!”

“Slow your roll, cowboy. I’ll drive her there. From what I hear, she’s a cool girl. Maybe a little lonely, but who wouldn’t be.” Jacob said in a calmer tone than Embry and Seth had. He understood, not because of the telepathy. When Bella first came, he knew that she felt the same. Eliana isn’t even in high school anymore, she has to meet friends somehow. “Come on, let’s go now. Before these clowns get even more excited about it.” Leah nodded before grabbing a light jacket and following Jacob to his motorcycle and got on the back. She directed him the way to her house as they zoomed down the road more. 

About five minutes later, they pull into the dirt driveway, about ten in the morning at that point. “Nervous?”

“Yeah, you think?” Leah’s nerves were through the roof. She never thought she’d get to this moment, now that she has, she doesn’t know what to do. Talk to her? She was really bad at that. Pulling a leg over to get off the bike and crossed her arms, looking at him. “What do I even talk about with her?”

“Well, there’s no time like the present.” Jacob said with a light chuckle. “Talk about her, what she likes, any of that stuff. If anything happens, you can leave. But if it’s a  _ good  _ thing that happens, dive right in. She’s your person, it’ll be fine.”

Nodding she turned towards the house. Jacob backed the motorcycle out of the driveway and back on the road. Leah took a deep breath before walking up the three steps to get to the front porch, and knocked on the door.


End file.
